Nobody Breaks My Heart
by TheGirlWithTheHeadphones
Summary: Elizabeth Raines returns to Rosewood after ,moving away to her hometown in England, for the funeral of her friend Alison. What secrets is she hiding, and how will the other liars react to the return of their friend.


**A/N: Hey there! Welcome to my new fanfic! I know I shouldn't be starting a new fanfic, what with how rarely I update my other fanfic, but I've had this idea for a while and I really needed to get it out. So, without further ado, I present to you the first chapter of Nobody Breaks My Heart.**

* * *

**Chapter 1- Kisses, A**

Elizabeth Raines was finally back in Rosewood. After everything that had happened to her in the past year; she was finally back. Too bad for her that it was for such a terrible occasion. A funeral. The funeral of her best friend Alison to be exact. Elizabeth, or Effy as she was called by most people who knew her, wasn't Alison's only best friend. In fact, there were four others who Alison called her best friends. But out of the entire group, Effy was the closest with her.

Maybe it was because Effy was known as the 'bad girl' of the group and Alison wanted to make sure she wouldn't turn against her, or maybe it was because she was the only one, apart from Spencer, who would stand up to her and she didn't want Effy to take over her position as the 'it girl' Effy didn't really know nor did she truly care for Alison's reasons.

She was the only one who Alison would share secrets with. Not all of them however, were hers to tell. Most of the secrets Alison had told her were about the rest of the group. Emily, Spencer, Aria and Hanna. The rest of the liars, as Effy had often called them. None of them ever truly knew that Effy knew any of their secrets; Alison had told them that she would keep it a secret and as far as they knew she had done so.

The girls had all told Ali their secrets, Effy however didn't. It wasn't that she didn't trust Alison; she just knew how Alison could get. And unlike the other girls, she wasn't afraid to keep things from her. Effy had once warned Alison that one day, knowing too much will get her killed. And that was exactly what had happened.

A year ago, during a sleep over before school was due to resume, Alison had disappeared. Effy could remember that day like it was yesterday.

**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
(1 Year Earlier)  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

Effy and the rest of the girls were lounging around in Spencer's barn, casually passing around a cup filled with some sort of alcohol that the girls had stolen from their parents liquor cabinets. They were laughing, drinking and completely ignoring the raging storm outside. Things were almost perfect, there was just one thing missing. Alison.

The cup was passed to Spencer who took a good gulp of it as Aria, Emily and Hanna laughed. Effy couldn't help but think they were so childish sometimes, wondering how they would react to what she did when she wasn't with them.

She was almost two years older than the other girls, having been held back two years because of the change in educational systems between England and America. Well, that and her constantly ditching school. Although, most people didn't quite know that that was the reason. The girls were some of the few who knew that she often missed school because she had 'things' to do.

What the girls didn't know was that the reason she wasn't with them a lot of the time was that she was hanging out with Jason DiLaurentis. Alison's older brother. Alison's older brother was known by many of the town's residents for doing drugs and drinking alcohol so despite her well known 'bad girl' reputation, she could not let anyone know what she was really doing whenever she told the rest of the girls she couldn't hang out with them. She couldn't let them find out about her getting high or drunk with Jason and his friends.

Out of nowhere the electricity suddenly seemed to stop working, dragging Effy out of her thoughts.

"What was that?" Aria asked, her voice wavering. She almost burst out laughing, was someone a little scared?

"It must be the storm." Spencer said reasonably. She was Effy's favourite, besides Alison. She was smart and could stand up to Ali, Elizabeth admired that.

"Something's out there…" Aria whispered after hearing some rustling from outside.

"Relax. It's probably just Alison trying to scare us." Elizabeth couldn't help herself from rolling her eyes. They seemed to ignore her though, because as soon as there was another sound they all got up and began to creep towards the door, trying to be as silent as possible.

"Seriously guys-" She began but was cut off by the sound of something breaking outside, most likely a twig. This managed to get her attention long enough to distract her from once again trying to tell the other girls that it was just Alison trying to mess with them. After all, that was what Alison did best; mess with people.

The girls walked closer to the door in utter silence all of them too terrified to make a sound.

"Gotcha!" Alison suddenly jumped out from behind the door and Effy and Alison both started laughing as the others screamed.

"I told you." She said before laughing slightly. The faces of the rest of the girls were priceless and Effy couldn't help but laugh. The girls finally recovered from their initial shock and all of them began to protest, saying it wasn't funny.

"Of course it is. See, even Effy's laughing." Alison said, smiling as she took her usual seat next to Elizabeth.

"I tried to warn you." She chuckled as they resumed their previous positions, still slightly scared as a conversation began like nothing had happened.

"So, did you download the new Beyonce?" Hanna asked, looking at Alison. Ali smiled for a moment before replying, sounding slightly irritated.

"Urgh, not yet."

"I'm loving her new video." Emily spoke while smiling innocently.

"Maybe a little too much Em?"

Neither Aria, Spencer nor Hanna seemed to notice how Emily looked the slightest bit uncomfortable at Alison's words. Seeing this, Effy turned to give Alison a look that told her to lay off Emily. Alison was always doing that, giving everybody nearby hints to the girls' secrets, teasing them, making them squirm. It wasn't as if Effy never made fun of anyone, she did so quite often now that she thought about it. But she never truly did so to her friends, maybe as a joke but she would never actually mean it.

"Your turn." Alison spoke, teasingly passing Aria the cup they had been passing around earlier. She looked at her as Effy's eyebrow rose. She stopped looking after that and instead took an extremely large gulp of the alcohol. Everyone laughed at this, including Effy. Someone was a little eager.

"Careful Aria, take too much and you'll tell us all your secrets." We all laughed as Aria rolled her eyes at us.

"Then why are we stopping her?" Elizabeth spoke up. "Maybe we should hear about dear Aria's secrets." Of course, Effy already knew them, but she couldn't let them know that.

"Friends share secrets, that's what keeps us close." Alison said in a seemingly friendly tone, agreeing with Effy's earlier statement. Effy couldn't but feel as if part of the remark was directed towards her. After all, Alison told her almost every secret she knew yet Effy never told her any of hers. "Drink up." She laughed breaking the small silence in the room. Aria looked at Alison one last time before drinking more.

* * *

Elizabeth woke up later that night to the sound of someone getting up. She opened her eyes slightly and saw Alison trying to sneak away.

"Alison? Where are you going?" She whispered sharply.

"Oh, thank God it's you and not one of the others." Alison sighed in relief. If anyone would understand that she had to sneak out, it would definitely be Effy.

"Answer my question." She said. Elizabeth may have been half asleep but she wasn't about to let her go off without an explanation. Effy got up from where she was laying down and faced Alison, waiting for a response to her question.

"I need to meet someone. Please, I'll be back later; just don't tell the girls I left." Effy found herself glaring at her.

"You really expect me not to tell them about this? Don't you think you keep enough secrets from them?"

"I was hoping you'd be the best friend I know and keep one secret. You owe me that much seeing as you don't seem to trust me enough to tell me yours." She told her calmly, trying to guilt her into letting her go. Effy simply crossed her arm, that wasn't going to work on her.

"Well you know what they say about hope, it brings eternal misery." Elizabeth gave her friend one last angry look before storming off into the night. It wasn't that she didn't want Alison leaving in the middle of the night; Effy herself had done that too many times to have any say in stopping her. What she didn't want her doing was keeping this many secrets. Although Alison had told Elizabeth some of her secrets, and almost all the secrets that the rest of the group held, she still hid many secrets from her. Secrets that could change everything.

* * *

After wandering around for an hour or two, Elizabeth found herself back at Spencer's barn.

"What do you mean she's gone?" She could vaguely hear Aria's voice as she neared the entrance of the barn.

"Aria? What's going on?" She asked as she walked up to the four girls who were standing just outside the barn.

"Effy! There you are, we were worried about you! Have you seen Alison?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at the beginning of the sentence. Since when did they worry about where she was when she went off, they all knew that she often had things to do and they had learnt not to question it?

"Wait, you mean Alison's not back yet?" Effy asked when she realised what Aria had just said.

"What do you mean 'yet'" Spencer spoke, turning to look at Elizabeth. She could see the look Spencer was giving her and instantly remembered what Alison had asked her to do before she stormed off. Effy may have been angry at her but Alison was still her best friend. She had to do what Alison had asked of her; after all it wasn't like Alison hadn't asked her to lie for her before just like Effy had asked her to do the same.

"I woke up earlier and noticed she was gone and went looking for her. I assumed she would be back by now." She lied, flawlessly like always. She was Rosewood's 'bad girl' after all, she wasn't new to lying.

The girls had all just assumed that Ali was at her house. She had probably gone home after everyone fell asleep making her bored. It would be such a typical Alison type of thing that the girls would have never had expected Alison to turn out missing.

**Flash Forward**

A few weeks after the incident, Elizabeth's parents had had enough of their daughter being constantly questioned about Alison's disappearance. Realising that as long as they stayed in Rosewood there was no way the questions would ever truly stop, the family decided to move away.

Shortly after her family moved back to England, her father received a job offer from his old employer. Of course, he accepted and for almost 6 months everything seemed fine. Until tragedy struck. Elizabeth's father was on the way home from her older sister's university when their car veered off a bridge. Along with Effy's older sister, her father died on the scene; drowning before emergency services were even contacted.

In an effort to get away from everything, Effy and her mother moved away from the town where they once lived. 3 and a half months later, once they had finally managed to get over the deaths of their family members, Effy had received a call from Jason DiLaurentis, saying that Alison's body had been found and his family would appreciate it if they could attend the funeral. Just like that, Effy and her mother decided it was finally time to return to Rosewood.

And that was exactly where Effy now was. Back in the town where it all began. She had just arrived after catching a plane from Heathrow and getting a taxi down to her old house in Rosewood. Luckily, when her family returned to England they thought that it would only be a temporary thing, thus only rented the house out.

Once Elizabeth arrived at the house, she decided that, since she had a few hours left before the funeral and since she was still a bit jetlagged after the flight from England, she would catch up on some sleep. She didn't bother to change, knowing that she would need to change into a dress for the funeral later, and just went upstairs to her old bedroom, which was almost exactly like she left it, and collapsed onto the bed.

* * *

Later that night she was awoken by the sound of someone texting her.

_Wakey, wakey my dear Effy. Wouldn't want to miss as glorious an occasion as my funeral now would you? Or, is there another reason for your return? Hoping to see Jason are you? Don't worry honey, that's one secret I'll never tell. _

_Kisses_

_-A_

"A?" Effy breathed out. She couldn't believe it. Who was this A person? And how did they know about her and Jason? Not even Ali knew about them being together… And what was 'A' even supposed to mean? Alison? No. it couldn't be. She was dead. And Effy was going to her funeral in less than 3 hours. It was probably just someone messing around, saying what they thought would be a funny joke.

She shook her head, trying to get the message out of her head. She had two hours to get ready for a funeral and she couldn't let anything distract her, she had to stop letting her past haunt her so much.

She jogged downstairs to grab her clothes and noticed that her mother had left her a note which said that she had left to go to their storage unit and told her that she would meet her at the church later.

* * *

She was not stood in front of the church where the service was being held. It hadn't fully hit her until now, not fully. Alison was dead. She was really dead. After everything her and the girls had been through with Alison, she was gone. Just like that. Effy was never really one to be emotional, but when it came to Alison it was different. Alison was Elizabeth's best friend and she would always care about her. That was the exact reason why she couldn't walk into the church just yet, not until she absolutely had to.

"You came." She turned around to face the owner of the voice.

"Jason." She said simply, not fully trusting her voice just yet.

"You really came…" he trailed off.

"I had to, it was Alison." She wanted to say more, to comfort him, ask him how he was holding up, but she was stopped by a deep, scarlet coloured haired woman. The woman had bright blue eyes which seemed to be dull, the cause of which was probably the fact she was standing outside a church where a young girl's funeral was to be held. The woman's name was Daphne Raines, Elizabeth's mother. Her mother approached her to let her know that they were going to begin in ten minutes. She nodded and said a quick goodbye to Jason before making her way to the church.

* * *

"Who is that talking to Mrs DiLaurentis?" Hanna whispered getting the attention of the rest of the girls. Spencer looked at Alison's mother out of the corner of my eye trying to make it seems as inconspicuous as possible. Stood next to the grieving mother was a woman with deep scarlet red hair. She was wearing simple black heels and an elegant, slender black dress. She seemed to look familiar to the younger Hastings girl; however as she wasn't able to recognised her she just assumed that she was a family friend that they had seen around Alison's house before.

"I'm not sure, can't think of who she might be." Spencer said and they all turned back, no longer caring much about who the person might have been. The church was full of people they couldn't recognise, what difference was one woman going to do?

"Poor Ali." Emily said, looking close to tears.

"Can you believe what a scene this is?" Hanna spoke while holding onto Aria's hand for support. She had to remain strong, for Emily.

"Alison would have loved it…" Aria remarked, not taking her eyes off of the picture of Alison standing not too far in front of them.

"Popular in life and death." Spencer smiled bitterly. She missed Alison a lot, even if she had blackmailed her and argued with her. She was still one of her closest friends. No sooner had she said that than the girls heard a familiar British voice reply.

"That's immortality my darlings." The girls looked up and gasped. Looking down at them was a girl with quite long, straight brown hair and piercing icy blue eyes.

"Effy?" Emily asked, surprised.

"Who else?" She replied bluntly, before taking a seat on the bench next to Aria. The rest of the girls couldn't believe that Effy was there. She may have been the closest to Alison but she was also my most guarded, the least emotional. And after everything that happened after Alison disappeared, she left and they hadn't heard from her since. She had lost contact with everyone, not a single hint towards where she was and what she might have been doing for an entire year. What Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna couldn't fathom was how she found out about the funeral.

"Jason called me." She explained, answering the silent question. The rest of the girls nodded but her response had only made Spencer even more agitated. How was Jason able to contact her when nobody else could? Had she kept contact with him? Spencer shook her head to rid herself of the thought. As far as her and the rest of the girls knew, Elizabeth only knew Jason as Alison's older brother. Nothing more and nothing less.

Aria's phone suddenly rang and they all jumped; all of them apart from Effy who just looked curiously at Aria.

"Anybody we know?" Spencer asked, saying what the other girls seemed to be thinking.

"No, um, it's just my mum texting me." She explained and the rest of the girls all breathed a sigh of relief. Aria didn't speak for a moment until she realised what Spencer had asked her.

"Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from A, are we?" She asked, staring at the rest of the 'liars'. They were all silent, slightly scared; all apart from Effy who broke the silence by a shocking question.

"Is that Jenna?" They all turned to face the area at which their British friend was looking, before nodding bewildered.

"What's she doing here?" They all turned to face the front just as Alison's mother sat down next to them, preventing them from speaking about the matter further.

"Is that Jenna Marshal?" She asked, looking just as confused as the girls. "I wasn't aware her and Ali were friends."

"They weren't." Spencer blurted out before she could stop herself. Alison's mother nodded lightly, wondering what Jenna was doing here if she wasn't friends with her daughter.

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away…"

* * *

After the funeral, the girls walked out of the church, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily holding hands while Effy chose to simply stand beside them. Spencer was about to question Elizabeth about how Jason had managed to contact her however as soon as the British girl spotted Jason she made her way over to him, saying goodbye to the girls in the process.

"Hey." She whispered once she had reached him.

"Effy." He said simply once he had noticed her. "How are you holding up."

"_I_ should be asking _you _that question." She retorted, raising her eyebrow as she tried to hide her feelings from him.

"Eff, I'm serious." He said, looking concerned. Jason was one of the few people who could see through Elizabeth's emotional barricade. The wall she had built around her throughout the years. When she was around him, it was as if the wall was transparent, made of glass that Jason could simply break with a few words because of how fragile it was.

"I'm fine, just a little shaken up." She reassured him, still trying to hide her true emotions. "What about you? How's your mum holding up?"

"Alright I guess, at least there's no more waiting." He replied, saying almost exactly what was on Effy's mind. She nodded, showing her understanding of the situation. "You look different, I almost didn't recognise you."

She chuckled a little. The last time he saw her she looked different. Not by much but still different, different enough for people from Rosewood not to recognise her. Her hair was longer and crimped, she wore more make-up, not too much, just enough to give her the mysterious bad girl look, and most of all she dressed almost completely differently.

After she left town she decided she needed to change something. She figured that changing her appearance was the least she could do, and so she did. Only slightly, but it was still a change. A change she felt happy with.

"Yeah, I uhh ,needed a change." She smiled lightly. Suddenly she turned around and noticed Daren Wilden making his way towards the girls. Being the so called 'bad girl' of Rosewood meant that Effy had met Wilden before, mainly for ditching school. Knowing what Wilden could be like she was somewhat worried about what he was going to say to the four girls.

Noticing her distress at Wilden trying to talk to the girls, Jason told her to go to them.

"Umm, alright call me if you need someone to talk to or anything." She said, nodding at him before walking off towards the group.

"Elizabeth. Perfect, now that all of you are here, I can begin." Effy glared at him. She never like Wilden. "Emily, Spencer, Aria, Elizabeth and Hanna."

"Do we know you?" Spencer asked confused and mildly shy. The older girl wanted to speak up however Wilden beat her to it.

"I'm Detective Wilden. I understand you were all good friends with the victim." Once again, Effy didn't have the chance to reply with a snarky comment as Aria gained the courage to speak up.

"Yeah, we were." The short girl told him.

"I'm going to need to talk to each one of you." He informed them.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." Elizabeth finally spoke up, irritated and slightly addled. Why did they have to speak to the Police again? They had already told them everything they knew about the night Alison disappeared.

"And I intend to go over every one of your statements." He spoke, his eyes boring straight into Elizabeth's as if he was trying to get her to confess something. "As this is no longer a missing person's investigation, it's a murder." He stopped staring at her, instead casting his gaze over every single one of the girls. "And rest assure I will find out what happened that summer." He finished and then strolled away. The group watched as he made his way through the crowd, then stood still leaning against a tree. Almost as if he was waiting for them to do something that would make them look guilty.

"Do you think he knows about the-"

"No, how could he." The 18 year old interrupted her before she could finish the question. Aria opened her mouth to say something else but was cut off by the sound of all their phones ringing.

"Oh my God."

"No way."

"I got one too."

Effy pulled out her phone and saw another text from this so called 'A'.

_I'm still here bitches. And I know everything._

_-A_

* * *

**A/N: I hope that was okay, I'm not really used to writing in third person so it's taking me a while to adjust. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter though and hopefully you'll stay and keep reading. I'll try to be back soon with the next chapter. Please do me a favour and review to let me know how this went. **

**Tenchu!**

**Till next time**

**R&R**

_**xox TheGirlWithTheHeadphones**_


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